Free meals extended to Glasgow's Primary 4 pupils
Councillors backed a rise to Council Tax to help roll out the scheme
Glasgow will become the first authority in Scotland to extend free school meals to all primary four pupils, after agreeing a budget that invests in communities, infrastructure and inclusion. Members today backed a 3% increase in Council Tax, to support a range of services - including support for financial and digital inclusion; tackling poor mental health and loneliness, and passing more resources and power directly to the city’s neighbourhoods.
Council leader Cllr Susan Aitken said: “This is a budget which protects and invests in services, infrastructure and our workforce. It is a change of direction in how we deploy our resources, shifting the emphasis to the backbone of Glasgow, our communities. By extending free school meals to all our 6000 primary four children we are making a clear investment in this city’s future whilst tackling the social inequality we are determined to finally confront and consign to history.We have protected our education budget to improve the life chances of our children. Extending free school meals will make a difference to learning while increasing our clothing grant will help a great many families cope. And, because hunger is still a daily issue for too many children in this city, we have also committed to invest £2m so children can receive a hot meal during school holidays.”
Resources have been identified in today’s budget to allow staff in Cordia, the arm’s-length organisation that provides care services, to return to the council with terms and conditions equal to other staff, if the council’s ongoing review of ALEOs recommends this. And the city will spend £3.6 million to create 150 new, permanent jobs in the city’s cleansing team; to protect and improve the environment in communities across Glasgow.
Cllr Aitken said: “Low-paid women provide the care this city relies upon and I’m delighted we have set aside the finances to bring them back into the council from Cordia and give them the same terms and conditions as their colleagues within the authority. Meanwhile, temporary contracts are not good for staff nor the stability of services so we have begun to tackle this by creating permanent cleansing jobs; a clear frontline investment in cleaner streets and vibrant neighbourhoods.”
Members also agreed a huge investment in infrastructure - including more than ÂŁ22 million for roads and footpaths and a combined ÂŁ13 million for efficient LED streetlighting; playgrounds; new smart bins; parks and open spaces, and community sport.
City Treasurer Cllr Allan Gow said: “This budget is about investing to improve. It lays out and funds an ambitious agenda to improve this city and improve council services which we were elected to deliver. It also treats our greatest asset, our staff, with the fairness and equality they deserve. Some of our services have suffered chronic under-investment over many years and we are investing to improve planning, building control and our regulatory functions; all measures which will speed up development, as well as our ambitious affordable homes programme and grow our city economy.We need as a city to raise our expectations of our council and our council needs to respond. We have responded with a budget for the people of Glasgow.''